Spinning-mule



2 Shan -Sheet 1'.

E. WHI-TTAKBER; I Spinning- Mu-le.

Patented Jan. 25, 188i;

Ihvenior;

Edwin Whittaker.

any.

N. PETERS. PNOTO-LITHOGRAPNER, WASNINYGTUNMD. C

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

Pat'ehted Jan. 25,188I.

EQWHITTAKER. Spmnmg Mule inmwu Y a'Ma-LW EDWIN OF NEW BEDFOB rD MAssAOflUsETTS.

S PI N'NI NG- M U LE.

SPllil ('3J IiEfICA'II0N formingpart of Letters Patent No. 237,072, dated January 25, 1881.

Application filed October 25, 1879.

To all whomt't m'ay concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN Wnrrrmrnn, a citizen" of the United States, residing at New Bedford, in'the county ofBristollandState of Massachusetts, have invented new and'useful Improvements in Spinning-Mules, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates'to that class of spinning-mules known as the Mason mule, and has'tor its object toimprovethatpart of the mechanism of such machines which is made use of to transmit the motion from the draftrollershaft throughthe change-drait and intermediate draft-gears to'the-back shaft of the mule, and through it to the carriage,'when 'the same is being run out, whereby retrograde movement of the said roller-shaft shall beprevented when the carriage is being run in, the usual clutch or pawl-and r'atchet mechanism between the end of the roller-shaft and the end of the front draft-roller is dispensed with, and provision, is made for automatically disconnecting the said change-draft and intermediate draft-gears from the draft-gears on the roller-shaft and the gear on what I term the upper back shaft when the carriage is untimely arrested in its outward run.

The invention consists in a certain combination of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described, and pointed out in the claim.

In carrying out my invention I make use of the mule as ordinarily constructed, dispensing only with the clutch or pawl-and-ratchet mechanism between the end of the draw-roller shaft and the end of the front roller, making the two practically in one continuous shaft, so that in describing my invention hereinafter I shall only refer to such parts of a mule as comprise the same, together with such other parts as coact with them. The remaining parts of the mule not referred to, itis to be understood, are substantially the same as those in the mule of this class as heretofore employed, and as illustrated in Letters Patent No. 4,7 79, granted to W. Mason, October 3, 1846.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a mule-head divested of all mechanism except the parts belonging to my invention; and Fig. 2 is a side elevation of a spinning-mule constructed upon the plan of the well-known Mason mule,-and' having my improvement applied thereto.

The letter A designates a lever hinged to a bracket, g,which'is bolted to the frameof'the mule-head over the carriage draft-gear, as shown in-Fig. 1. The hinged lever A is provided with bearings forthe journals of the intermediate carriage draft-gear, h, and the change carriage draft-gear f. A rod, B, is fitted at its upper end into the outer end of the hinged lever A, and nuts a b are arranged upon said rod so as to bear respectively against opposite sides of the lever A. The said upper end of the rod B will be screw-threaded along its length for a distance sufficient to admit of the lever A being adjusted upon the rod byturning both of the nuts. This adjustment'is for the purpose of admitting of the use of different sizes of gears f h.

The rod B passes through a stud or collar, 0, which is bolted to the frame of the mulehead, and said rod is extended down to an arm, d, of an angle-iron, (l, which is hinged upon a pivot, E, projecting out from the frame of the mule-head. The lower end of the rod B fits loosely into a hole in the arm 01 of the angle-iron, and it is provided with ashoulder or collar, which bears upon the upper face of the said arm d. Upon the rod, below the arm cl, a nut will be fitted, so as to prevent the disconnection of the rod from the arm during operation. On the rod B, above the angleiron, is a collar, E, which is held in position thereon by a set-screw. A spring, d, is arranged upon the rod between the stud cand the collar E. This spring serves to hold the gears h and f in contact with the gears u and 'r' on the draw-roller shaft to and upper back shafts, 1, respectively, the gear h being the intermediate carriage draft-gear and the gear f being the change carriage draft-gear.

Prior to my invention a weight has been used instead of the spring which I employ, as just described, and such weight has been connected with a lever secured to the axle of the intermediate draft-gear, h; but a mule in which a Weight is thus employed, if spinning No. 85 yarn, will not spin No. 10% yarn without increasing the weight, since there is no provision for the adjustability of the weight. The

spring which I employ, however, may be made to act with more or less force, as desired, by merely adjusting the collar E upon the rod B, and it is therefore far more desirable and effective than a weight. Moreover, in using a weight the gears are liable to be crushed or broken as they are brought suddenly together, whereas this is avoided by the resiliency of the spring.

When the carriage, which is shown in dotted lines at g in Fig 2, is running out, motion is imparted to the front roller-shaft by the usual chain of gearing, the carriage receiving motion from the front roller-shaft through the gears h,f, r, and u and the upper back shaft, 1". When the carriage g has reached the limit of its outward traverse the sector and backot'f arm n, to which the rod 0' is connected, will be vibrated by the rod 11, which is operated by the crank m on the gear L. This vibrates the arm G and moves the lever n by the rod 9, which motion vibrates the angle-iron C, and hence raises the rod B. This rod necessarily raises the hinged lever A, thus disengaging the intermediate gears from the gear a of the front roller-shaft, u, and also from the gear 1' of the upper back shaft. Connection between the two gears r and u being thereby broken, the gear u will consequently remain stationary while the carriage is being run in by the usual devices, and after said carriage has reached the limit of its inward run they will be thrown into connection for the next outward run.

By this construction and arrangement of parts it will be seen that when the mule is undergoing the backing-01f movements, as well as when the carriage is being run in, the back shaftis disconnected from the draw-roller shaft and the latter remains wholly at rest. This admits of connecting both the draw-roller shaft and the front draft-roller together, so as to make them practically one continuous shaft, dispensing with the ordinary clutch or pawland-ratchet mechanism between said parts. At the same time, whenever the carriage in its outward run encounters any obstacle which retards its movement, the intermediate earriage draft and change draft gears are disconnected from the gears on the draw-roller shaft and the upper back shaft, thereby preventing the breaking of parts of the mule.

The construction of the mule is also much simpler and rendered more eii'ective than those heretofore employed.

\\'hat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of the adjustable spring d, the rod B, the collar a, secured to the frame, the collar E, arranged to be adjusted upon the rod B to increase or lessen the spring-pressure, the pivoted angle-iron 0, sector a, and rod 0, with the draft-gear 'u, shaft u, and the hinged lever A, carrying the gears f h, substantially as described.

EDWIN WHITTAKER.

Witnesses:

F. A. MILLIKEN, ROBERT GRIEVE. 

